Quote:
Originally Posted by aaron38
When did that racist as eff law get passed? Funny how I can point to multiple grocery and drug stores in the burbs that all sell booze, that are near schools or dense apartment complexes (section 8).
Funny how Lane Tech on Addison has a Jewel, Walgreens and Mariano's right next door. Guess what they sell? That's clear unequal treatment under the law.
Liquor sales are carded, and it's not illegal for a public housing resident to buy a 6-pack. How can packaged liquor sales be blocked?
So exactly how far from CHA or a south side school does a Walgreens have to be before it's okay?
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Liquor laws in Illinois are SUPER complicated and arcane, a ton of moralizing BS left over from Prohibition. The Women's Christian Temperance Union, one of the key advocates for Prohibition originally, was headquartered in Evanston. Even after Prohibition was repealed, do-gooders have been trying (and succeeding) to make it difficult to get a drink.
Here's a quick overview:
The state has an ban on liquor licenses within 100' of any church, school, library, hospital, or old folks' home. 100' isn't very far at all in the suburbs where things are spread out, but in the city even one little storefront church on a side street can affect liquor licensing on a major commercial street. Originally the only way around this was an act of the state legislature to grant an exemption (and providing convenient opportunities for politicians to extort business owners). Now the exemptions can be granted at the local level by aldermen (which is also problematic, see bribery) but Emanuel is pushing to have those exemptions granted by an appointed board instead.
Totally separate from the "sensitive uses" ban are two other forms of ban. 1) Individual precincts can vote themselves dry, which is a total ban on liquor licenses of all kinds. Existing licenses cannot be renewed following a dry vote and new ones cannot be issued. There are no exemptions allowed after a dry vote, there would have to be a second vote held to declare the precinct wet.
2) There's also a moratorium, which is a lower form of ban that allows exemptions to be granted by the alderman with an act of City Council. This comes in two flavors, on-premises consumption for taverns and package sales for liquor stores. This is pitched as a way for the community to shutter problematic businesses that attract crime (or "undesirables") but also acts as yet another way for aldermen to extort business owners.
I won't deny that there's racist aspects to certain parts of these laws, or the way that white communities can utilize the laws, but it's really more about corruption and pay-to-play than racism. Many all-minority precincts have voted themselves dry, for instance, because they believe liquor stores and bars (often owned by non-black or non-Latino immigrants) bring increased crime to their communities. Often these laws are used as a weapon against one or two specific businesses that the voters just don't like.
For the area at 15th/Blue Island, the whole neighborhood has a moratorium on taverns and package good sales, so the alderman would have to approve a new liquor license at that location after taking feedback from the community - and many black communities, or at least the politically active members of those communities, are strongly opposed to liquor sales. But superseding that is the Congressman GEorge Collins Apartments across the street, which is senior housing within 100'. Under the most recent laws, a separate liquor license exemption would also need approval by the Liquor Control Commission to get around the sensitive uses ban as well as the alderman to lift the moratorium.
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But at least I’m off Palatine Road (4 lanes with semis) so my son can play with the kids across the street. 
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